Fair and Tender Ladies- Buchanan (NC) 1939 Brown 5C
[Single stanza with music from Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume V, music 1957. Notes from Volume III follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
254. Little Sparrow
This lyric of the lovelorn is a favorite in the Southern mountains. See BSM 477 and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 80-1). Florida (SFLQ viii 172-3), Missouri (OFS I 315-17), and Indiana (SFLQ in 205, BSI 328). It is often called 'Come all you fair and tender ladies,' from its opening line. It is distinguished from other songs of a like spirit, such as 'The Inconstant Lover,' by the image of the bird and, generally, by the likening of love to a fair dawn that turns into bad weather. One of the following texts is marked by a trace — rare in American tradition — of the old English 'Seeds of Love' songs.
5C. 'Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies.' Sung by Mrs. H. R. Buchanan of Minneapolis, Avery county, September 7, 1939. Cf. JAFL XLIV 100-101, where the text has "They first appear." F-247
Come all you fair and tender ladies,
Take warning how you court young men.
They're like bright stars of a summer's morning;
They first are here and then they're gone.
For melodic relationship cf. **SharpK 11 130-5, No. 118D, F, M, N; Texas FS 136.
Scale: Heptachordal. Tonal Center: c. Structure: aa^bbi (2,2,2,2) = ab (4,4). The tonal center is the lowest tone.